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Demonic possession is one of the most fascinating subjects that the Bible contains. There have been books, and movies, and various other kinds of media used to tell stories over the years of human beings’ encounters with invisible, supernatural entities that don’t usually have our best interest at heart. Even I have written a book on the subject, which is called Tehom’at. The purpose of that book, however, is not to sensationalize the subject, but to explain – in what I believe to be a very convincing way – how our faith in the promises of our Father keeps us safe from even this kind of harm, and gives us victory over all manner of evil.
I would like to explore this matter a bit further here, and see how, as with every other topic the Bible presents to us, it is involved in the sanctification of a people preparing for Heaven.
We begin with one of the most well-known passages of the Scriptures concerning the interaction between people and evil forces. This is Yahshua speaking to the Pharisees, who are asking Him for a sign of His divine nature, and He concludes His reply to them in this way: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, ‘I will return into my house from whence I came out,’ and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” (Mat 12:43-45)
There is something very commonly missed with this passage, perhaps because the subject is so unusual, and so it may distract the reader from the reason why Yahshua is saying these things in the first place. Remember, Yahshua is being asked for a sign of His divinity – what does this answer have to do at all with that question? It involves the very last thing that He says: “so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” Yahshua is explaining the way that demons work, not just with regard to the way that they afflict individuals, but the way that they infect and dominate entire groups of people, even nations. The entire generation is cursed, Yahshua is telling the Pharisees, because of how demonic possession functions, and because they do not know how to rid themselves of those evil influences.
Let’s look at the context of Yahshua’s answer. When first asked for a sign, He replies that the only sign they will get is that of the Prophet Jonah, a messenger sent by Yahweh who was removed for a time from activity, but then returned in great power. This certainly does parallel His crucifixion and death, because it is when He is resurrected, that is when many believed in Him due to the testimony of His disciples. In His immediate answer to the Pharisees, though, He tells them that Nineveh (the city to which Jonah preached) will do better in the judgment than the Jewish nation, because at least when Jonah reappeared and prophesied to them, they repented. And yet, when Yahshua speaks to them now, and indeed, when He will testify against them through His saints after His resurrection, they will not believe. Nineveh, the capital of Babylon itself, displayed more faith in Yahweh’s messengers than those who were His chosen people, and these His chosen priests. And why? Why did the Pharisees have so little faith? It is because of the way that possession works.
Again, Yahshua says to the Pharisees in the following verse: “The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a Greater than Solomon is here.” (Mat 12:42) The Queen of Sheba, a foreigner – and remember, the Sadducees and Pharisees were extremely proud of their national heritage as Israelites – demonstrated more faith than the Jewish nation of His day. It is only then, after giving these two examples, that He speaks of an incomplete exorcism, a failed casting-out of an evil spirit.
Yahshua concludes His answer to the Pharisees by saying, “Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” When asked for a sign of His divinity, He does not describe an attempted exorcism to them for no reason. He is explaining what He has been trying to do with Israel from the days of the prophets like Jonah, and the kings like Solomon. He has been seeking a people who desire to be healed, to be cleansed, but with every rejection, with every failed exorcism, with every turning away, the nation became more susceptible to Satan’s influence – seven times more susceptible, if the numbers are taken just as stated. Finally, He makes one last attempt. The Old Testament ends with the very description of this last, desperate operation to purify His chosen. A messenger comes from the Father and Son: “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Mal 4:6)
This is the final verse of the entire Bible as it was known to the Jewish People of His day – understand that. There was no New Testament yet, and to this day the Jewish people do not accept any subsequent revelation to be of equal authority. This was the last thing Yahweh said prophetically to the Sadducees and Pharisees who were the religious leaders of Judaism. You will either be healed, or the earth will be cursed. You will either return to Me, or Satan will have complete power over you and all the earth that was placed under human authority. It is no small thing, and no arbitrary thing, that the prophetic books of the Jewish Bible end with these very words. And this is the reason why, because exorcism is not only applicable to individuals, but to communities, to groups, and to Churches.
The 144,000 have a clear and complete understanding of this. We cast out demons, as it was written of us, as it was commanded of us with loving intent: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give.” (Mat 10:8)
We expel demons, and we do so both individually and as a people, both from individuals, and from a people. We keep the camp of modern, spiritual Israel clean. That is how we overcome the Dragon, the Beast, and his Image. We reject them. We repel them. We exercise authority over them in the name of Yahshua.
Now, just as with Yahshua, it will appear for a time that we have been defeated. Yahshua was killed by a conspiracy of wicked men, and the Church will go through a time of trouble unlike any that has come before. And, just as with Yahshua, the Church goes silent, becomes invisible, in effect, being buried for a time. But when the Father raises the Son to life, then the glory is revealed, and the universe acknowledges the victory of the Father and Son, and the salvation of Their people.
And yet, despite this apparent time of defeat, at no point does the Church surrender its true victory. In His agony on the cross, at no point did Yahshua turn away from the Father. Like Job, whom we have examined recently, He remained in His faith, trusting, resting, even as His flesh, His mind, and His Spirit were viciously assaulted. So it is with the Church; whatsoever comes next, we shall not fail, nor shall we be discouraged. We shall not submit to temptation, and will keep the camp clean. As it is written, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27) It is uncertain to what degree we will have the opportunity to visit orphans and widows during the time of trouble, but that last part is certainly very applicable. We have cast out devils, we cast them out now, and they will remain cast out, because, unlike the description Yahshua gave to the Pharisees, we shall be sealed, forever closed off to the return of the wicked one and his fallen angels.
We have been sanctified by faith. Paul wrote centuries ago, “Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of Yahweh. And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Yahshua, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1Cor 6:10,11)
So we have been sanctified. Also, we are currently, presently, being sanctified. As it is written again, by way of instruction, “But sanctify the Lord Yahweh in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” (1Pet 3:15)
We have been sanctified, we are being sanctified, and we shall be sanctified, as we read a third passage, a prayer for the people of Yahweh: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray Yahweh your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Yahshua the Messiah.” (1Th 5:23)
There are three aspects of sanctification, past, present, and future, just as there are three aspects of salvation. We are sanctified by what Yahshua has done for us already. We are sanctified now by our current faith in His sacrifice and work on our behalf. We are sanctified in the future, as Paul writes, sanctified “wholly,” or completely, as we finish the work of preparing our characters for the soon return of Yahshua. That is what exorcism is, in terms of its impact on the victim – the casting out of an evil angel that has entered into a person’s spiritual being, but then, just as importantly, it is a healing, a sealing, of the breach in that individual’s spirit, his character, that allowed the demon entrance in the first place, and would allow its re-entry if left open.
Yahshua describes the exorcism of an individual without that second, critical step, and He says, “This is you, my People. You are asking Me for a sign, but this is the nation that stones the prophets. This is the nation that betrays the owner of the vineyard and slays its heir. This is the church that turns to the world for its power and protection. This is the church that refuses to reform when exposed to new light. This is the church that rejects the Three Angels’ Message as expressed through righteousness by faith. This is the people to whom Eli-Yah has come; and will they hear him, or will they be struck down by the curse that smites the earth?”
What does this exorcism of a people look like in practice? For a people that seek entrance into the light and purity of Yahweh’s Kingdom, there are two ways, or rather, two approaches to one way. There is examination, and there is trial. Trial forces an examination on those who do not realize they need an examination, you see, and so it ends up being the same thing, but how we get there depends on our willingness to be corrected, even rebuked and disciplined, by a gentle, loving voice.
For those who know Yahweh, and walk with Him in fellowship, we have the opportunity to skip the more “painful” aspects of revelation. Suppose one of us is carrying around baggage, the influence or thoughts projected on us by a tempting spirit, and another should ask, “Is that a false thought that you have accepted? Have you examined those words you have said, or that action you have done, to see if it is the result of a misunderstanding or unwitting deception?” Or suppose one has been deceived by a false religion, and someone who loves him comes to him and says, “Brother, the thing that you believe to be a true bride of Christ has fallen. The Father has called His people out of her, and into a covenant of safety.” There is the opportunity for healing, sanctification, and it may be quite a smooth process. If, however, there is resistance, because the wound is deeper than anticipated, that is where pain arises. The promise of Yahshua, to which we always cling, is this: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) This is the blessing of life, and the true Sabbath.
The carnal “self” is dead, for those who accept this blessing of life, and the dead known not anything, not even pain, and so even when something within our character might reveal a worldly thought or sentiment, something that demonstrates a weakness of understanding, that might be embarrassing to acknowledge, we remain in Christ. We rest in His promises, and we are not ashamed – not before the world, and certainly not before the loving Family that the Father has given us for this very purpose, so that we will be perfected before Him. Because the evil spirit is identified and cast off, Sabbath, peace, rest, joy, love, all those things remain. And I use the phrase, “evil spirit,” in two different ways.
What is an “evil spirit?” It can mean two things, but they are very tightly connected to each other. We read, “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of Yahweh came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. But the Spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, ‘Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.’” (1Sam 16:13-15)
That is quite a bold thing to say to one’s king, isn’t it? I would be rather hesitant to speak to King Saul in that way, especially if he is actively being influenced by spiritual evil. What we are seeing here is the protection of Yahweh being withdrawn from Saul, leaving him vulnerable to what Satan desired all along, control over the ruler of Israel. Of Saul himself, we read that an evil spirit “from the Lord” troubled him. Because Saul had failed to obey the voice of Yahweh, Satan brought an accusation against him, just as he did with Job, and just as he did (as we shall soon see) with Abraham.
When we are accused of sin by Satan, Yahweh permits evil spirits to test us. In that sense, it is not at all inaccurate to say that the evil spirit that afflicted Saul came from “the Lord,” just as a police officer may come “from the law” after you if you violate the law, even though the law is intended to protect you, at least in principle. Some modern-day Jews take this too far, not understanding angels and demons from the more perfect lens of the New Testament’s teachings. They believe that Satan is an angel that helps refine God’s people voluntarily; as it, it is his intended role. We see it as an unintended role, one into which he fell upon his rebellion, and for motives much less savory than the modern Jewish position would accept.
In any case, the evil spirit in this context is a “complete” spirit, in that it is its own being, a personality without a physical “body” as we understand it. That is one kind of spirit, an angel that has either remained faithful to Yahweh, or fallen into sin.
Aside from these complete spirits, there are also materially bound spirits, which is the kind of spirit that is in each of us. We read of the way in which we were created, “And Yahweh Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen 2:7) The word “breath” there is the same word in Hebrew for “spirit,” indicating that Yahweh placed a spirit of life into the material body, and thus was formed the living soul of Adam. As a result of this, we therefore say things like, “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.” (Dan 7:15) Therefore we say, “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:47)
Our spirits are aspects of our living beings, but not complete beings unto themselves. As non-Trinitarians, we understand most of the uses of the phrase “Holy Spirit” in the Bible to refer to this second type in a general sense as applied to the Father. It is not a separate being from the Father and Son, but rather, as Yahshua Himself describes it, “the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father.” (John 15:26)
Of all the beings and spirits, Yahshua is purely and entirely unique, being both a complete Spirit, appearing to the angels as an angel, and a Spirit now bound to a body. John writes, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Angels may appear as men, but they do not become flesh. Human beings may ascend to Heaven, and be translated as were Enoch and Elijah, but they remain glorified men. It is Yahshua alone who is both complete as a Spirit, as the Person of the Holy Spirit, and complete as a man, and thus He is the only Mediator, capable of atoning us to the Father and purging away sins committed in this flesh.
Evil spirits, therefore, are those fallen angels who seek to corrupt mankind and turn them away from the Creator. These we also call “demons,” and it would have been better (certainly less confusing) if they had been always and only called by that separate name. Then we also have the spirits in us, the spiritual aspects of our beings that the demons seek to corrupt. When this occurs, the character is defiled, to the degree that even King Saul’s servants noticed a change in his personality, and perhaps recklessly declared it to his face.
When we speak of exorcism, we speak both of casting off evil spirits, or demons, and also casting out evil tendencies from our own personal spirits, this essence of life that our Father has bound to these bodies of flesh, the better to represent Himself in the material world.
I don’t want to get too theoretical here, or too theological, but the idea should actually be rather simple, despite the fact that the same word is used for these two separate but related concepts. There are evil spirits, fallen angels that seek to corrupt our flesh-bound spirits so that we become like them in character. These tempting spirits must be denied, rejected, and overcome through prayer, fasting, and a commitment to victory over sin. They are overcome by faith, by relying on the promises of our Father. However, we have all spent time in the world, and in this sinful flesh, being influenced for years by these demons, and so those who remain in the world have “evil spirits,” not only attacking and influencing them, but they have evil spirits in that their spirits have become, themselves, evil.
When a saint is newly converted, being born again, he comes up out of the world, and will have the “smell of smoke” of that past life clinging to him to some degree. He will have lots of things to learn about righteousness. Here is where the need for sanctification emerges. We must be educated, we must be healed, so that we can withstand the brightness of the atmosphere of Heaven. This is a new environment into which we enter, entirely unlike the one we had experienced before. We can see this very clearly in the way that many people get uncomfortable when religious matters are discussed, and how they turn away from a holy example. There is a spiritual tension… they know they are supposed to love goodness, and honesty, and integrity, and so they should be drawn to the one who prays, and speaks of Yahweh’s love, but because they are of the flesh, they cannot stand too close for too long. They are convicted by the testimony of the saint, and then their name comes up in judgment.
Yahweh’s light is repulsive, in a literal sense, to evil. Many of us here have our stories of being chased out of Churches, and insulted and rejected by those whom we are trying to help. Pastor “Chick” has shared his story with the Church at times of an Adventist elder yelling at him with demonic fury because of the testimony of Yahshua. These are devils revealing themselves in the light of Yahweh’s glory. These are demons reacting with shock to one who has the authority, in Yahshua’s name, to identify them and cast them out. Shall not the 144,000 understand these things, and rejoice? Our names are written in Heaven, because our Savior knows us by name, and He has given us power to overcome all things.
I mentioned Abraham earlier. Abraham was instructed by Yahweh to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. This was a harrowing experience, and the question may arise, “Why? Why was Abraham’s test so severe?” It was severe, because Abraham had not believed Yahweh’s promise with regard to his first son. For Abraham, even faithful Abraham, his son had become a kind of idol to him, and so Satan accused him of having a higher priority than his trust in Yahweh’s promise. We know how the story concluded; Abraham was about to carry out the sacrifice, when Yahweh called out to him, saying, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest Elohim, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.” (Gen 22:12) Abraham had overcome the trial. He had proven Satan’s accusation, the very thing Yahweh mentioned there, to be false.
The point, though, is that Abraham’s test was proportional to the need he was to meet. Abraham was to be seen by the generations to come as entirely dedicated to Yahweh, with nothing, and no person, taking a higher place in his affections. Because Abraham was to be an example to the entire world of perfect worship, the accusation against him must be met in a visible, dramatic way.
What of the 144,000 who will serve a similar purpose? What of the 144,000, who will be instruct the apostles and the angels in matters of faith? Our example is to be that of perfect faith and worship to the entire universe, and for all eternity. We shall likewise be purified of all idols, and our priorities entirely holy. Understanding this issue of exorcism, and how it applies not only to individuals, but also the entire community of faith, we have the opportunity to avoid tests as severe as the one to which Abraham was subject. We search ourselves to see that we are in the faith, (2Cor 13:5) and surrender all impurities before there arises an accusation, and the need for a trial. We help our brethren to process their thoughts, learning to love what is true, and reject what is false. We listen to the voice of conscience and the teachings of holy principles. We rest in the justification that our Savior has given us, and believe Him when He tells us that He has set us free from sin at the cost of His own life. By examination, by honest and earnest examination of our motives, and by bravely standing in our integrity, we avoid many, painful trials. We learn to hear that “still, small voice” that spoke to Eli-Yah in 1Kings 19:12, and let our Father lead us gently, but steadily, higher and higher into His glory, so that we may not only put away from ourselves all that the evil spirits would have us accept, but our “houses” remain clean, and swept, and entirely forbidden forever to the enemy of our souls.
Let us continue to learn more of our Father’s character, together, as a Family, and by faith make it our own for our own blessing, and for the blessing of those in the world who must hear of these things, so that they may escape the judgment pronounced on all who reject the loving and urgent ministry of Eli-Yah.
David.
An Enduring Witness
“I saw that if the church had always retained her holy and peculiar character, the power of the Holy Spirit which was imparted to the disciples would be with her. The sick would be healed, devils would be rebuked and cast out, and she would be mighty, and a terror to her enemies. [...] God had a message for the church that was sacred and important. If received, it would make a thorough reformation in the church, revive the living testimony that would purge out hypocrites and sinners, and bring the church again into favor with God.” [Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 1, pp. 126, 127]
“To men whom God designs shall fill responsible positions, He in mercy reveals their hidden defects, that they may look within and examine critically the complicated emotions and exercises of their own hearts, and detect that which is wrong; thus they may modify their dispositions and refine their manners. The Lord in His providence brings men where He can test their moral powers and reveal their motives of action, that they may improve what is right in themselves and put away that which is wrong. God would have His servants become acquainted with the moral machinery of their own hearts. In order to bring this about, He often permits the fire of affliction to assail them that they may become purified.” [Counsels for The Church, p. 54]
“Sin and sinners in the church must be promptly dealt with, that others may not be contaminated. Truth and purity require that we make more thorough work to cleanse the camp from Achans. Let those in responsible positions not suffer sin in a brother. Show him that he must either put away his sins or be separated from the church.” [Counsels for The Church, p. 109]